973.7L63   Welles,  Gideon,  1802-1878, 

BW459a 

Administration  of  Abraham 

Lincoln 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


^\ 


THE   GALAXY 


VOL.  XXni.— JANUAKY,   1877.— No.   1. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABHAII.\M  LINCOLN. 


rr^IIE  political  differences  wliicli 
JL  have  generated  parties  in  this 
country  date  back  to  an  early  period. 
They  existed  under  the  old  coufedcr- 
ttion,  were  perceptible  in  the  form- 
ation of  the  Constitution  and  estab- 
lishment of  "a  more  perfect  union." 
Differences  on  fundamcutal  principles 
of  government  led  to  the  organization 
of  parties  which,  under  various  names, 
aftir  the  adoption  of  tlie  Federal  Con- 
stitution, divided  the  people  and  in- 
fluenced and  often  controlKd  national 
and  State  elections.  Neither  of  the 
parties,  however,  has  alw.ays  strictly 
adhered  or  been  true  to  its  professed 
principles.  Each  has,  under  the  pres- 
sure of  circumstances  and  to  secure 
tcftiporary  ascendancy  in  the  Federal  or 
State  governments,  departed  from  the 
landmarks  and  traditions  which  gave 
it  its  distinctive  cliaractcr.  The  Cen- 
traiuis,  a  name  wliich  more  signi- 
ficantly than  any  other  expresses  the 
ehar.acter,  principlij,  and  ti^ndcncy  of 
those  who  favor  centralization  of 
power  in  a  supreme  head  that  shall  ex- 
ercise paternal  control  over  States  and 
people,  have  under  various  names  con- 
stituted one  party.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  SlatUti,  under  different  names,  have 
from  the  first  been  jealous  of  central 
supremacy.  They  believe  in  local  self- 
government,  support  the  States  in  all 
their  reserved  and  ungranted  rights, 
insist  on  a  strict  con.'itruotion  of  the 
Constitution    and    the    limitation    of 


Federal  authority  to  the  powers  specifi- 
cally delegated  in  that  instrument. 

The  broad  and  deep  line  of  demarc- 
ation between  these  parties  has  not 
always  been  acknowledged.  Inno- 
vation and  change  have  sometimes 
modified  and  disturbed  this  line;  but 
after  a  period  the  distinctive  boundary 
has  reappeared  and  antagonized  the 
people.  During  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Monroe,  known  as  the  "era  of 
good  feeling,"  national  party  lines 
were  almost  totally  obliterated,  and 
local  and  personal  controversies  took 
their  place.  National  questions  were 
revivid,  however,  and  contested  with 
extreme  violence  during  several  suc- 
ceeding administrations.  Thirty  years 
later,  when  the  issues  of  bank,  tarifl, 
internal  improvements,  and  an  inde- 
pendent treasury  were  disposed  of, 
there  was  as  complete  a  break  up  of 
parties  as  in  the  days  of  Monroe.  It 
was  not,  however,  in  an  "era  of  good 
feeling"  that  this  later  dislocation  of 
parties  took  place;  but  an  attempt 
was  made  in  1850  by  leading  politicians 
belonging  to  different  organizations  to 
unite  the  people  by  a  compromise  or 
an  arrangement  as  unnatural  as  it  was 
insincere — party  lines  if  not  obliterated 
were,  as  the  authors  intended,  in  a 
measure  broken  down.  This  compro- 
mise, as  it  was  called,  was  a  sacrifice  of 
honest  principlos,  and  instead  of  allay- 
ing dispute.<i,  was  followed  by  a  terrific 
stonn  of  contention  and  Tiolcncc  tran- 


Eaurcd,  iccordloc  to  -^ct  of  Conir'".  In  thf  rnr  IPTT.  by  STTKLDON  &  CO.,  In  th«  offloe  of  tb4 
librsrUa  of  Cx>ngT«M,  it  Wa^hlogtoa. 
1 


6 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAUAM  LENCOLN.         [Jancaky, 


Bcending  anything  the  country  had  ever 
expeiienced,  and  ended  in  a  civil  war. 

The  time  has  not  yet  arrived  for  a 
calm  and  dispassionate  review  of  the 
acts  and  actors  of  that  period  and  the 
events  of  the  immediately  succeeding 
years ;  but  the  incidents  that  took  place 
and  the  experience  so  dearly  purchased 
should  not  be  perverted,  misunder- 
stood, or  wholly  forgotten. 

The  compromises  of  1850,  instead  of 
adjusting  differences  and  making  the 
people  of  one  mind  on  political  ques- 
tions, actually  caused  in  their  practical 
results  the  alienation  of  life-long  party 
friends,  led  to  new  associations  among 
old  opponents,  and  created  organiza- 
tions that  partook  more  of  a  sectional 
character  than  of  honest  constitutional 
differences  on  fundamental  questions 
relative  to  the  powers  and  authority  of 
the  Government,  such  as  had  previous- 
ly divided  the  people.  The  facility 
with  which  old  political  opponents 
came  together  in  the  compromise  mea- 
sures of  1850,  and  abandoned  principles 
and  doctrines  for  which  they  had  bat- 
tled through  their  whole  lives,  begot 
popular  distrust.  Confidence  in  the 
sincerity  of  the  men  who  so  readily 
made  sacrifices  of  principles  was  for- 
feited or  greatly  impaired.  Tlie  Wliig 
party  dwindled  under  it,  and  as  an 
organization  shortly  went  out  of  ex- 
istence. A  large  portion  of  its  mem- 
bers, disgusted  with  what  they  con- 
sidered the  insincerity  if  not  faithless- 
ness of  their  leaders,  yet  unwilling  to 
attach  themselves  to  the  Democratic 
party,  which  had  coalesced  in  the  move- 
ment, gathered  together  in  a  secret  or- 
ganization, styling  themselves  "Know 
Nothings."  Democrats  in  some  quar- 
rters,  scarcely  less  dissatisfied  witli  the 
compromises,  joined  the  Know  Nothing 
order,  and  in  one  or  two  annual  elec- 
tions this  strange  combination,  without 
avowed  principles  or  purpose,  save  that 
of  the  defeat  and  overthrow  of  poli- 
ticians, who  were  once  their  trusted 
favorites,  was  successful.  In  this  de- 
moralized condition  of  affairs,  the 
Democrats  by  the  accession  of  Whigs 
in  the  Southern  States  obtained  posses- 


sion of  the  Government  and  main- 
tained their  ascendancy  through  the 
Pierce  administration;  and,  in  a  con- 
test quite  as  much  sectional  as  polit- 
ical, elected  Buchanan  in  1856. 

But  these  were  the  expiring  days 
of  the  old  Democratic  organization, 
which,  under  the  amalgamating  process 
of  the  compromise  measures,  became 
shattered  and  mixed,  especially  in  the 
Southern  States,  with  former  Wliigs, 
and  was  to  a  great  extent  thereafter 
sectionalized.  The  different  opposing 
political  elements  united  against  it 
and  organized  and  established  the  Re- 
publican party,  which  triumphed  in  the 
election  of  Lincoln  in  1800.  The  ad- 
ministration which  followed  and  was 
inaugurated  in  1801  differed  in  essen- 
tial particulars  from  either  of  the  pre- 
ceding political  organizations.  Men 
of  opposing  principles — Centralists, 
who  like  Hamilton  and  patriots  of  that 
class  were  for  a  strong  imperial  na- 
tional government,  with  supervising 
and  controlling  authority  over  the 
States,  on  one  hand,  and  Statists  on  the 
other,  who,  like  Jefferson,  adhered  to 
State  individuality  and  favored  a  league 
or  federation  of  States,  a  national  re- 
public of  limited  and  clearly  defined 
powers,  with  a  strict  observance  of  all 
the  reserved  right  of  the  local  com- 
monwealths— were  brought  together  in 
the  elections  of  1860.  It  has  been 
represented  and  recorded  as  grave 
history  that  the  Republican  party  was 
an  abolition  party.  Such  was  not  the 
fact,  although  the  small  and  utterly 
powerless  faction  which,  under  the 
lead  of  "William  Lloyd  Garrison  and 
others,  had  for  years  made  aggressiva 
war  on  slavery,  was  one  of  the  elements 
which  united  with  Whigs  and  Dem- 
ocrats in  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Nor  was  that  result  a  Whig  triumph, 
though  a  large  portion  of  the  Whigs  in 
the  free  States,  after  the  compromises  of 
1850,  from  natural  antagonism  to  the 
Democrats,  entered  into  the  Repub- 
lican organization.  While  it  is  true 
that  a  large  majority  of  the  Whigs  of 
the  North  relinquished  their  old  organ- 
ization and  became  Republicans,  it  is 


1877.1 


ADSUNISTRATION  OF  ABRAH:V>I  LINCOLN. 


no  les3  true  that  throughout  the  slave 
States,  and  in  many  of  the  free  States, 
the  members  of  the  Whig  party  to  a 
considerable  extent  supported  Bell  or 
Breokenridge.  But  Democrats  dissat- 
isfied with  the  measures  of  the  Pierce 
and  Buchanan  administrations,  in 
much  larger  numbers  than  is  generally 
conceded,  took  early  and  efficient  part 
in  the  Republican  organizations— some 
on  account  of  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise,  but  a  much  larger 
number  in  consequence  of  the  efforts 
of  the  central  Government  at  Washing- 
ton, by  what  vras  considered  by  them 
an  abuse  of  civil  trust,  and  by  military 
interference,  to  overpower  the  settlers 
in  Kansas,  denying  them  the  right  of 
self-government,  and  an  attempt  arbi- 
trarily and  surreptitiously  to  impose 
upon  the  inhabitants  against  their  will 
a  fraudulent  Constitution.  It  was  this 
large  contribution  of  free-thinking  and 
independent  Democrats,  who  had  the 
courage  to  throw  off  party  allegiance 
.and  discipline  in  behalf  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  free  government  on  which 
our  republican  system  is  founded,  the 
right  of  the  people  to  self-government, 
and,  consequently,  the  right  to  form 
and  establish  their  own  constitution 
without  dictation  or  interference  from 
the  central  government  so  long  as  they 
violated  no  provision  of  the  organic 
law,  that  gave  tone,  form,  and  ascend- 
ancy to  the  Republican  party  in  every 
free  State. 

Persistent  efforts  have  been  made  to 
establish  as  historical  truths  the  rep- 
resentations that  the  civil  war  had  its 
origin  in  a  scheme  or  purjiose  to  abol- 
ish slavery  in  the  States  where  it  ex- 
isted, and  that  the  election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  an  abolition  triumph — a 
premeditated,  aggressive,  sectional  war 
upon  the  South  ;  whereas  the  reverse  is 
the  fact — the  Republican  p.arty  in  its 
inception  was  a  strictly  constitutional 
party,  that  defended  the  rights  of  the 
people,  the  rights  of  the  States,  and 
the  rights  of  the  Federal  Government, 
which  were  assailed  by  a  sectional  com- 
bination that  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
Constitution  as  it  was,  but  proposed 


to  exact  new  guarantees  from  the  na- 
tion for  the  protection  of  what  they 
called  "Southern  rights" — rights  un- 
known to  the  Constitution.  The  mis- 
representations that  the  Republicans 
were  aggressive  and  aimed  to  change 
the  organic  law  have  not  been  without 
their  influence,  temporarily  at  least, 
in  prejudicing  and  warping  the  public 
mind.  It  is  true  that  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  most  injudiciously  and  un- 
wisely brought  into  the  party  contro- 
versies of  the  country  ;  but  it  was  done 
by  the  slaveholders  or  their  political 
representatives  in  Congress  after  the 
failure  of  the  nuUifiers  to  obtain  as- 
cendancy in  the  Government  on  the 
subject  of  free  trade  and  resistance  to 
the  revenue  laws. 

Johu  C.  Calhoun,  a  man  of  un- 
doubted talents,  but  of  unappeasable 
ambition,  had  at  an  early  period  of  his 
life,  while  Secretary  of  War,  and  still  a 
young  man,  aspired  to  the  office  of 
President.  By  his  ability  and  patri- 
otic course  during  the  war  of  1813, 
and  subsequently  by  a  brilliant  career 
as  a  member  of  Mr.  Monroe's  Cabinet, 
he  h.ad  acquired  fame  and  a  certain 
degree  of  popularity  which  favored  his 
pretensions,  particularly  with  young 
men  and  army  officers.  Schemes  and 
projects  of  national  aggrandizement 
by  internal  improvements,  protection 
to  home  industries,  large  military  ex- 
penditures, and  me.asures  of  a  central- 
izing tendency  which  were  popular  in 
that  era  of  no  parties,  gave  him  i'dat  as 
Secretary  of  War.  Flattered  by  his 
attentions  and  by  his  shining  qualities, 
militai-y  men  became  his  enthusiastic 
supporters,  and  received  encourage- 
ment from  him  in  return.  It  was  the 
first  attempt  to  elect  so  young  a  man  to 
be  Chief  Magistrate,  and  was  more  per- 
sonal than  political  in  its  character. 
In  the  memorable  contest  for  the  sue- 
cessorship  to  President  Monroe,  Mr. 
Calhoun  at  one  time  seemed  to  be  a 
formidable  candidate;  but  his  pop- 
ularity being  personal  was  evanescent, 
and  failed  to  enlist  the  considerate  and 
reflecting.  Even  his  military  hopes 
were  soon  eclipsed  by  Genera!  Jack- 


8 


.U)iIlNISTRATION  OP  ABRA.HAJVI  LINCOLN.         [January, 


son,  whose  bold  achievements  and  suc- 
cesses in  the  Indian  and  Britisli  wars 
captivated  the  popular  mind.  Jack- 
son had  also,  as  a  representative  and 
Senator  in  Congress,  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee,  and  Gov- 
ernor of  Florida,  great  civil  experience. 
Mr.  Callioun  was,  however,  in  the  polit- 
ical struggle  that  took  place  in  1834, 
elected  to  the  second  oiBce  of  the  re- 
public, while  in  the  strife,  confusion, 
and  break  up  of  parties  no  one  of  the 
competing  candidates  for  President  re- 
ceived a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes. 
He  and  his  supporters  submitted  to,  it 
may  be  said  acquiesced  in,  the  result 
then  and  also  in  1828,  when  General 
Jackson  was  elected  President  and  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  reelected  to  the  office  of 
Vice-President.  This  acquiescence, 
however,  was  reluctant ;  but  with  an  ex- 
pectation that  he  would  in  1833,  at  the 
close  of  General  Jackson's  term,  be  the 
successor  of  the  distinguished  military 
chieftain. 

But  the  arrangements  of  calculat- 
ing politicians  often  end  in  disap- 
pointments. Such  was  the  misfor- 
tune of  Mr.  Calhoun.  His  ambitious 
and  apparently  well  contrived  plans 
had  most  of  them  an  abortive  and  hap- 
less termination.  Observation  and  ex; 
pericnce  convinced  him,  after  leaving 
Mr.  Monroe's  Cabinet,  that  the  ed- 
ucated and  reflective  Statists  or  State 
rights  men  of  the  country,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  South,  would  never  sanc- 
tion or  be  reconciled  to  the  exercise 
of  power  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  protect  the  manufacturing  in- 
terests of  New  England,  or  to  construct 
roads  and  canals  in  the  West,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  National  Treasury.  These 
were,  however,  favorite  measures  of  a 
class  of  politicians  of  the  period  who 
had  special  interests  to  subserve,  and 
who  carried  with  them  the  consolida- 
tionists,  or  advocates  of  a  strong  and 
magnificent  central  government.  The 
tariff,  internal  improvements,  and  kiu- 
dred  subjects  became  classified  and 
known  in  the  party  politics  of  that  day 
as  the  "American  system" — a  system 
of  high  taxes  and  large  expenditures 


by  the  Federal  Government — without 
specific  constitutional  authority  for 
either.  Parties  were  arrayed  on  op- 
posite sides  of  this  system,  which,  be- 
sides the  political  principles  involved, 
soon  p.artook  of  a  sectional  character. 
High  and  oppressive  duties  on  importa- 
tions, it  was  claimed,  were  imposed  to 
foster  certain  industries  in  the  North  to 
the  injury  of  the  South. 

Henry  Clay,  a  politician  and  states- 
man of  wonderful  magnetic  power,  was 
the  eloquent  champion  of  tlie  "Amer- 
ican system,"  and  enlisted  in  his  favor 
the  large  manufacturing  interest  in  the 
North  and  the  friends  of  internal  im- 
provement in  the  West.  These  mea- 
sures were  made  national  issues,  and 
Mr.  Clay,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  appropriated  them  to 
his  personal  advancement,  and  was 
their  recognized  leading  advocate. 
Mr.  Calhoun  could  not  be  second  to 
his  Western  rival,  but  abandoned  the 
policy  of  protection,  iuternal  improve- 
ments, and  great  national  undertak- 
ings, and  allied  himself  to  the  com- 
mercial and  plantation  interests,  which 
opposed  the  system,  expecting  to  iden- 
tify himself  with  and  to  receive  the 
support  of  the  Statists.  But  the  strict 
constructionists  of  Virginia,  Georgia, 
and  other  States  of  the  old  Jefferson 
school  distrusted  him  and  withheld 
their  confidence  and  support. 

South  Carolina,  erratic,  brilliant,  and 
impulsive,  had  never  fully  harmonized 
with  the  politicians  of  Virginia  in  their 
political  doctrines,  but  had  been  in- 
clined to  ridicule  the  rigid  and  non- 
progressive principles  of  her  states- 
men, who,  always  cautious,  were  now 
slow  to  receive  into  fellowship  and  to 
commit  themselves  to  the  new  con- 
vert who  sought  their  support.  They 
slighted  him,  and  rejected  his  nullifi- 
cation remedies.  Instead  of  following 
the  Palmetto  State  in  her  fanatical 
party  schemes  on  the  alleged  issue  of 
free  trade,  and  supporting  her  "fa- 
vorite son  "  in  his  tlieories,  they  sus- 
tained General  Jackson,  whose  Union 
sentiments  they  approved,  and  who, 
to  the  disgust  of  Calhoun,  became  a 


1877 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABR^VIIAil  LINCOLN. 


caudidato  for  reelection  in  1S32  and 
received  the  votes  of  almost  the  wliole 
Bouth. 

In  this  crisis,  when  the  heated  par- 
tisans of  South  Carolina  in  their 
zeal  for  free  trade  and  State  rights 
liad  made  a  step  in  advance  of  the 
more  staid  and  reflecting  Statists,  and 
undertook  to  abrogate  and  nullify  the 
laws  of  the  Federal  Government  legal- 
ly enaeted,  tltey  found  themselves  un- 
supported and  in  difficulty,  and  natu- 
rally turnecj  to  their  acknowledged 
leader  for  guidance.  To  contest  the 
Federal  Government,  and  pioneer  the 
way  for  his  associates  to  resist  and 
overthrow  the  Administration,  Mr.  Cal- 
houn resigned  the  otBce  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent and  accepted  that  of  Senator, 
where  his  active  mind,  fertile  in  re- 
sources, could,  and  as  he  and  they  be- 
lieved would  extricate  them.  There 
was,  however,  at  the  head  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  that  day  a  stern,  patriotic, 
and  uncompromising  Chief  Magistrate, 
who  would  listen  to  no  mere  temporiz- 
ingcspedients  when  the  stability  of  the 
Union  was  involved,  and  who,  while 
recognizing  and  maintaining  the  rights 
of  the  States,  never  forgot  the  rights 
that  belonged  to  ths  Federal  Govern- 
ment. In  his  extremity,  when  con- 
fronting this  inflexible  President,  Mr. 
Calhouu  hastened  to  make  friends  with 
his  old  opponents.  Clay,  Webster,  and 
the  protectionists,  the  advocates  of 
the  "American  system,"  the  authors 
and  champions  of  the  very  policy 
which  had  been  made  the  pretext  or 
justification  for  nullification  and  re- 
sistance to  Federal  law  and  the  Fede- 
ral authority.  This  coalition  of  hos- 
tile factions  combined  in  a  scheme,  or 
compromise,  where  each  Bacrificed 
principles  to  oppose  the  administration 
of  Jockaon.  It  was  an  insincere  and 
unrighteous  coalition  which  soon  fell 
asunder. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  nullifi- 
cation was  hopelessly  prostrate,  and 
before  the  coalition  was  complete,  the 
prolific  mind  of  the  aspiring  Carolin- 
ian devised  a  new  plan  and  a  new  system 
of  tactics  which  it  was  expected  would 


sectionalizc  and  unite  the  South. 
This  new  device  was  a  defence  of  slav- 
ery— a  subject  in  which  the  entire  South 
was  interested — against  the  impudent 
demands  of  the  abolitionists.  Not  un- 
til the  nuUifiers  were  defeated,  and  had 
failed  to  draw  the  South  into  their 
nullification  plan,  was  slavery  agita- 
tion introduced  into  Congress  and 
made  a  sectional  party  question  with 
aggressive  demands  for  national  pro- 
tection. The  abolitionists  were  few 
in  numbers,  and  of  little  account  in 
American  politics.  Some  benevolent 
Quakers  and  uneasy  fanatics,  who 
neither  comprehended  the  structure  of 
our  Federal  system  nor  cared  for  the 
Constitution,  had  annually  for  forty 
years  petitioned  Congress  to  give  free- 
dom to  the  slaves.  But  the  statesmen 
of  neither  party  listened  to  these  un- 
constitutional appeals  until  the  defeat- 
ed nuUifiers  professed  great  apprehen- 
sion in  regard  to  them,  and  introduced 
the  subject  as  a  disturbance,  and  made 
it  a  sensational  sectional  issue  in  Con- 
gress and  the  elections. 

From  the  first  agitation  of  the  sub- 
ject as  a  party  question,  slavery  in  all 
its  phases  was  made;  sectional  and  ag- 
gressive by  the  South.  Beginning 
with  a  denial  of  the  right  to  petition 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  with 
demands  for  new  and  more  exacting 
national  laws  for  the  arrest  and  rendi- 
tion of  fugitives,  the  new  sectional 
party  tost  was  followed  by  other  mea- 
sures; such  as  the  unconditional  ad- 
mission of  Texas,  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  all  the  free  territory  ac- 
quired from  Mexico,  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise,  a  denial  to  the 
people  of  Kansas  of  the  right  to  frame 
their  own  constitution,  and  other  in- 
cidental and  irritating  questions  that 
were  not  legitimately  within  the  scope 
of  Federal  authority.  Fierce  conten- 
tions prevailed  for  years,  sometimes 
more  violent  than  at  others. 

In  1850  a  budget  of  compromises, 
which  has  already  been  alluded  to, 
involving  a  surrender  of  4)rinciple8 
and  an  enactment  of  laws  that  were 
unwarranted  by  tho  Constitution,  and 


10 


ADmXISTRATION  OF  ABRAIIAJiI  LINCOLN.         [Janc.uit, 


offensive  in  other  respects,  had  been 
patched  up  by  old  Congressional  party 
leaders,   ostensibly  to    reconcile    con- 
flicting views  and  interests,  but  which 
were  superficial  remedies  for  a  cancer- 
ous  disease,    and    intended   more    to 
glorify  the    authors   than   to  promote 
the   country's   weli'are.     Both    of   the 
great  parties  were  committed  by  the 
managers   to   these  compromises,    but 
the  effect    upon    each    was   different. 
The  Whigs,  tired  of  constant  defeat, 
hoped  for  a  change  by  the   compro- 
mises that  would  give  them  recogni- 
tion and  power;    but  instead  of  these 
they   found  themselves   dwarfed    and 
weakened,  while  the  Democrats,  who 
yielded  sound  principles  to  conciliate 
their  Southern  allies,  were   for  a  time 
numerically  strengthened  in  that  sec- 
tion   by    accessions  from   the  Whigs. 
Old  party  lines  became  broken,  and  in 
the   Presidential   contest  of   1853  the 
Democratic  candidate.  General  Pierce, 
a  young  and  showy,  but  not  profound 
man,  was  elected  by  an  overwhelming 
majority    over    the    veteran    General 
Scott,  who  was  the  candidate  of  the 
Whigs.     From  this  date  the  Whig  or- 
ganization  dwindled  and  had   but  a 
fragmentary     existence.       Thencefor- 
ward, until  the  overthrow  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic    party,     the     Government     at 
Washington  tended  to  centralization. 
Fidelity  to   party,  and   adherence   to 
organization,    with    little   regard    for 
principle,   were    its   political    tests   in 
the  free  States.      Sectional  sentiments 
to  sustain  Southern  aggressions,  under 
the  name  of  "Southern  rights,"  were 
inculcated,  violent  language,  and  acts 
that  were  scarcely  less  so,   prevailed 
through  the  South  and  found   apolo- 
gists  and    defenders   at    the    North. 
Presidents  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  liter- 
ally   "northern    men   with    southern 
principles,"  were  submissive  to  these 
sectional    aggressions,    acquiesced    in 
the  repenl  of  the  Missouri  compromise, 
the    extension    and    nationalizing   of 
slavery,   hitherto  a    State   institution, 
and  also  to  the  schemes  to  prevent  the 
establishment  of  a  free  constitution  by 
the  people  of  Kansas.     The  mass  of 


voters  opposed  to  the  policy  of  these 
administrations,  and  who  constituted 
the  Republican  party,  were  not  entire- 
ly in  accord  on  fundamental  principles 
and  views  of  government,  but  had 
been  brought  into  united  action  from 
the  course  of  events  which  followed 
the  Mexican  war,  the  acquisition  of 
territory,  and  the  unfortunate  compro- 
mises of  1850.  The  sectional  strife, 
for  the  alleged  reason  of  Lincoln's 
election  and  Republican  success,  which 
eventuated  in  hostilities  in  ISCl,  and 
the  tremendous  conflict  that  succeed- 
ed and  shook  the  foundation  of  the 
Government  during  the  ensuing  four 
years,  threatening  the  national  exist 
ence,  absorbed  all  minor  questions  of 
a  purely  political  party  character,  and 
made  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
though  its  members  entertained  or- 
ganic differences,  a  unit.  There  were 
occasions  when  the  antecedent  opin- 
ions and  convictions  of  the  members 
elicited  discussion  in  regard  to  the 
powers,  limitations,  and  attributes  of 
government;  but  in  the  midst  of  war 
disagreeing  political  ojjiuious  as  well 
as  the  laws  themselves  were  silenced. 
Each  and  all  felt  the  necessity  of  har- 
monious and  efficient  action  to  pre- 
serve the  Union. 

This  was  especially  thj  case  dur- 
ing the  first  two  years  of  the  war 
of  secession.  Not  only  the  Presi- 
dent's constitutional  advisers,  but 
the  Republican  members  of  Congress, 
embracing  many  captious,  factious,  and 
theoretical  controversialists,  acted  in 
harmony  and  concert.  Murmurs  were 
heard  among  ita  friends,  and  dissatis- 
faction felt  that  the  Administration 
was  not  sufficiently  energetic  or  arbi- 
trary, and  because  it  did  not  immedi- 
ately suppress  the  rebellion.  A  long 
period  of  peace  which  the  country  had 
enjoyed  rendered  the  malcontents  in- 
capable of  judging  of  the  necessities 
of  preparation  for  war.  "  On  to  Rich- 
mond "  became  the  cry  of  the  impa- 
tient and  restless  before  the  armies 
mustered  into  service  were  organized. 
The  violent  and  impassioned  api)eals 
of  excited  and  mischievous  speakers 


187 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


11 


and  writers  crc.itcd  discontent  and 
clamor  that  could  not  always  be  ap- 
peased or  successfully  resisted.  Not 
content  with  honest  if  not  always  in- 
telligent criticism  of  tlie  Government, 
some  editors,  papers,  writers,  and 
speakers,  at  an  early  period  and  in- 
deed throughout  the  war,  condemned 
the  policy  pursued,  assumed  to  direct 
the  mauagement  of  affairs,  and  ad- 
vanced crude  and  absurd  notions  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  Uovcnimeut 
should  be  administered  and  military 
operations  conducted.  For  a  period 
after  the  rout  at  Bull  Run,  which 
seemed  a  rebuke  to  these  inconsiderate 
partisans,  there  was  a  temporary  lull 
of  complaints  and  apparent  acquies- 
cence by  Republicans  in  the  measures 
of  administration. 

Military  dillereuces  and  army  jea- 
lousies existed  from  the  beginning, 
which  were  aggravated  and  stimulated 
by  partisan  friends  and  opponents  of 
the  rival  officers,  and  by  dissent  from 
the  policy  pursued  in  the  conduct  of 
military  affairs  to  which  many  took 
exception. 

General  Scott  was  the  military  ora- 
cle of  the  Administration  in  the  first 
days  of  the  war.  His  ability  and 
great  experience  entitled  him  to  regard 
a:ul  deference  on  all  questions  relating 
to  military  operations.  No  one  ap- 
preciated his  qualities  more  than  the 
President,  unless  it  was  General  Scott 
himself,  who  with  great  self-esteem 
was  nevertheless  not  unconscious  that 
his  age  and  infirmities  had  impaired 
his  physical  energies,  and  in  some  re- 
spects untitled  him  to  be  the  active 
military  commander.  It  was  his  mis- 
fortune that  he  prided  himself  more 
if  possible  on  his  civil  and  political 
knowledge  and  his  administrative 
ability  than  on  his  military  skill  and 
capacity.  As  a  politician  his  opinions 
were  often  chimerical,  unstable,  and 
of  little  moment;  but  his  military 
knowlcdcre  and  experience  were  valu- 
able. With  headquarters  at  Washing- 
ton, and  for  thirty  years  consulted  and 
trusted  by  successive  administrations 
of  different  parties  in  important  emer- 


gencies, internal  and  external,  and  at 
one  time  the  selected  candidate  of  one 
of  the  great  political  parties  for  Presi- 
dent, he  had  reason  to  feel  that  he  was 
an  important  personage  in  the  repub- 
lic; also  that  he  was  competent,  and 
that  it  was  a  duty  for  him  to  partici- 
pate in  political  matters,  and  to  advise 
in  civil  affairs  when  there  were  threat- 
ened dangers.  But  while  he  was  sa- 
gacious to  detect  the  premonitory 
symptoms  of  disturbance,  and  always 
ready  to  obey  and  execute  military 
orders,  he  was  in  political  and  civil 
matters  often  weak,  irresolute,  and  in- 
firm of  purpose.  He  had  in  the  au- 
tumn of  18G0  warned  President  Bu- 
chanan of  danger  to  be  apprehended 
from  the  secession  movement,  and 
wisely  suggested  measures  to  preserve 
peace;  but  he  soon  distrusted  and 
abandoned  his  own  suggestions.  With- 
out much  knowledge  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  believing  erroneously,  as  did  many 
others,  that  Mr.  Seward  was  to  bo  the 
controlling  mind  in  the  new  adminis- 
tration, he  early  put  himself  in  com- 
munication with  that  gentleman.  The 
two  agreed  upon  the  policy  of  surren- 
dering or  yielding  to  the  States  in  se- 
cession the  fortresses  within  their 
respective  limits.  It  has  been  said, 
and  circumstances  indicate  that  there 
was  also  an  understanding  by  Mr. 
Seward  with  certain  secession  leaders, 
that  the  forts,  particularly  Sumter,  if 
not  attacked,  should  not  bo  reinforced. 
Of  the  plans  of  Mr.  Seward  and  General 
Scott,  and  the  understanding  which 
cither  of  them  had  with  the  secession- 
ists, President  Lincoln  was  not  in- 
formed ;  but,  while  he  had  a  sense  of 
duty  and  a  ])olicy  of  his  own,  he  at- 
tentively and  quietly  listened  to  each 
and  to  all  others  entitled  to  give  their 
opinions. 

The  reports  of  Major  Anderson  and 
the  defence  of  Sumter  being  military 
operations,  the  President,  pursuant  to 
Mr.  Seward's  advice,  referred  to  Gene- 
ral Scott,  and  it  was  supposed  by  those 
gentlemen  that  the  President  acqui- 
esced in  their  conclusions.  Nor  were 
they  alone  in  that  supposition,  for  the 


13 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAUAII  LINCOLN.         [J.vnuart, 


President,  while  cautiously  feelinw  his 
way,  sounding  the  minds  of  others, 
and  gathering  information  from  every 
quarter,  wisely  kept  his  own  counsel 
and  delayed  announcing  his  determi- 
nation until  the  last  moment.  He  was 
accused  of  being  culpably  slow,  when 
he  wrvs  wisely  deliberate. 

When  his  decision  to  reinforce  Sum- 
ter was  finally  made  known,  the  Sec- 
retary  of    State   and   the   General-in- 
Chief  were  surprised,  embarrassed,  and 
greatly  disappointed ;  for  it  was  an  ut- 
ter negation  and  defeat  of  tlie  policy 
which  they  had  prescribed.     The  Gen- 
eral, like  a  good  soldier,  quietly  and 
submissively  acquiesced ;  but  Mr.  Sew- 
ard,  a  man  of   expedients   and    some 
conceit,  was  unwilling  and  unprepared 
to  surrender  the  first  place  in  the  Ad- 
ministration, and  virtually  publish  the 
fact  by  an  Executive  mandate  which 
upset  his  promised  and  preferred  ar- 
rangements.    It  was  then  that  he  be- 
came aware  of  two  things :  first,  that 
neither  himself  nor  General  Scott,  nor 
both   combined,  were   infallible  with 
the  Administration ;  and  second,  that 
the  President,  with  all  his  suavity  and 
genial  nature,  had  a  mind  of  his  own, 
and  the  resolution  and  self-reliance  to 
form,   and  the  firmness  and  indepen- 
dence to  execute  a  purpose.     They  had 
each    overestimated    the   influence   of 
the  other  with  the  President,  and  un- 
derestimated  his   capacity,   will,   and 
self-reliance.     When  the  Secretary  be- 
came convinced  that  he  could  not  alter 
the  President's  determination,  he  con- 
formed to  circumstances,  immediately 
changed  his  tactics,  and  after  notify- 
ing the  authorities  at  Charleston  that 
the  garrison  in  Sumter  was  to  be  sup- 
plied, he  took  prompt  but  secret  mea- 
sures to  defeat  the  expedition  by  de- 
taching the  flagship,  and  sending  her, 
with  the  supplies  and  reinforcements 
that  had  been  prepared  and  intended 
for  Sumter,  to  Port  Pickens.     In  doing 
this  he  consulted  neither  the  War  nor 
Navy  Departments,  to  which  the  ser- 
vice belonged ;   but  discarding  both, 
and  also  the  General-in-Chief,  his  pre- 
ceding   special    confidant,    and    with 


whom  he  had  until  then  acted  in  con- 
cert, he  took  to  his  counsel  younger 
military  officers,  secretly  advised  with 
them  and  withdrew  them  from  their 
legitimate  and  assigned  duties.  The 
discourtesy  and  the  irregularity  of  the 
proceeding,  when  it  became  known, 
shocked  General  Scott.  His  pride  was 
touched.  He  felt  the  slight,  but  he 
was  too  good  au  officer,  too  subordi- 
nate, and  too  well  disciplined,  to  com- 
plain. The  secret  military  expedition 
undertaken  by  the  Secretary  of  State 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  proper 
departments  and  of  himself,  was  so  ir- 
regular, such  evidence  of  improper  ad- 
ministration, that  he  became  alarmed. 
He  felt  keenly  the  course  of  Mr.  Sew- 
ard in  not  consulting  him,  and  in  sub- 
stituting one  of  his  staff  as  military 
adviser  for  the  Secretary  of  State ;  but 
he  was  more  concerned  for  the  Gov- 
ernment and  country. 

A  native  of  Virginia,  and  imbued 
with  the  political  doctrines  there  prev- 
alent, but  unflinching  in  patriotism 
and  devotion  to  the  Union  and  the 
flag.  General  Scott  hesitated  how  to 
act — objected  to  the  hostile  invasion 
of  any  State  by  the  national  troops, 
but  advised  that  the  rebellious  section 
should  be  blockaded  by  sea  and  land. 
He  thought  that  surrounded  by  the 
army  and  navy  the  insurgents  would 
be  cut  oS  from  the  outer  world,  and 
when  exhausted  from  non-intercourse 
and  the  entire  prostration  of  trade  and 
commerce  they  would  return  to  duty; 
the  "  anaconda  principle  "  of  exhaust- 
ing them  he  believed  would  be  ellect- 
ual  without  invading  the  territory  of 
States.  When  the  mayor  of  Baltimore 
and  a  committee  of  secessionists  waited 
upon  the  President  on  the  SOtli  of 
April  to  protest  against  the  passage  of 
troops  through  that  city  to  the  national 
capital,  he,  in  deference  to  the  local 
government,  advised  the  President  to 
yield  to  the  metropolitan  demand,  and 
himself  drew  up  an  Executive  order  to 
that  effect.  The  seizure  of  Harper's 
Ferry  and  Norfolk  and  the  threatened  ' 
attack  upon  Washington  greatly  dis- 
turbed him,   but  not  so  much   as  the 


187 


ADillNISTRATION  OF  ABRMIAAI  LINCOLN. 


i:! 


wild  cry  of  the  ardent  and  impulsive 
which  soon  followed  of  "  on  to  Rich- 
mond "  with  an  undisciplined  army. 

Sensible  of  his  inability  to  tuke  the 
field,  he  acquiesced  in  the  selection  if 
he  did  not  propose  after  the  disaster 
at  Bull  Run,  that  General  McClcUun 
should  be  called  to  Wiishingtou  to 
organize  the  broken  and  demoralized 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  A  tliorou>:;h  re- 
organization was  promptly  and  effect- 
ually accomplished  by  that  officer.  In 
a  few  days  order,  precision,  and  dis- 
cipline prevailed — the  troops  were 
massed  and  a  large  army  was  encamped 
in  and  about  the  national  <'apital.  But 
it  was  soon  evident  to  the  members  of 
the  Administration  that  there  was  not 
perfect  accord  between  the  two  Gen- 
erals. The  cause  and  extent  of  dis- 
agreement were  not  immediately  un- 
derstood. 

At  a  Cabinet  meeting  which  took 
place  in  September  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  Gcncrul-in-Chief  by  reason  of  his 
physical  infirmities,  a  brief  discussion 
occurred  which  developed  coolness  if 
not  dissatisfaction.  An  inquiry  was 
made  by  the  President  as  to  the  exact 
number  of  troops  then  in  and  about 
Washington.  General  McClellau  did 
not  immediately  respond — said  he  had 
brought  no  reports  or  papers  with  him. 
General  Scott  said  he  had  not  himself 
recently  received  any  reports.  Secre- 
tary Seward  took  from  his  pocket  some 
memoranda,  stating  the  number  that 
had  been  mustered  in  a  few  days  pre- 
vious, and  then  went  on  to  mention  ad- 
ditional regiments  which  had  arrived 
several  successive  days  since,  making 
an  aggregate,  I  think,  of  about  ninety- 
three  thousand  men.  The  General  im- 
mediately became  grave. 

When  the  subject  matter  for  which 
the  Cabinet  and  war  officers  had  been 
convened  was  disposed  of,  some  of  the 
gentlemen  left,  and  General  McClcUan 
was  about  retiring,  when  General  Scott 
requested  him  to  remain,  and  he  also 
desired  the  President  and  the  rest  of 
us  to  listen  to  some  inquiries  and  re- 
marks which  he  wished  to  make.  He 
was  very  deliberate,  but  evidently  very 


much  aggrieved.  Addressing  General 
JlcClellan,  he  said: 

"You  are  perhaps  aware,  General 
McClellan,  that  you  were  brought  to 
these  headquarters  by  my  advice  and 
by  my  orders  after  consulting  with  tlie 
President.  I  know  you  to  be  intelli- 
gent and  to  be  possessed  of  some  ex- 
cellent military  qualities;  and  after 
our  late  disaster  it  appeared  to  me  that 
you  were  a  proper  person  to  organize 
and  take  active  command  of  this  army. 
I  brought  you  hero  for  tliat  purpose. 
Many  things  have  been,  as  I  expected 
they  would  be,  well  done  ;  but  in  some 
respects  I  have  been  disappointed. 
You  do  not  seem  to  be  awnre  of  your 
true  position;  anil  it  was  for  this  rea- 
son I  desired  that  the  President  and 
these  gentlemen  should  hear  what  I 
h.ave  to  say.  You  are  here  upon  my 
staff  to  obey  my  orders,  and  should 
daily  report  to  me.  This  you  have 
failed  to  do,  and  you  appear  to  labor 
under  the  mistake  of  supposing  that 
you  and  not  I  are  General-in-Chief  and 
in  command  of  the  armies.  I  more 
than  you  am  responsible  for  military 
operations;  but  since  you  came  here  I 
have  been  in  no  condition  to  give 
directions  or  to  advise  the  President 
because  ray  chief  of  staff  has  neglected 
to  make  reports  to  me.  I  cannot  an- 
swer simple  inquiries  which  the  Pres- 
ident or  any  member  of  the  Cabinet 
makes  as  to  tiie  number  of  troops 
here ;  they  must  go  to  the  State  depart- 
ment and  not  come  to  military  head- 
quarters for  that  information." 

Mr.  Seward  hero  interposed  to  say 
that  the  statement  he  had  made  was 
from  facts  which  he  had  himself  col- 
lected from  day  to  day  as  the  troops 
arrived.  '"Do  I  understand,"  asked 
General  Scott,  "that  the  regiments  re- 
port ai  they  come  here  to  the  Ilouor- 
aljle  Secretary  of  State?  " 

"No,  no,"  s.aid  Mr.  Cameron,  who 
wished  to  arrest  or  soften  a  painful  in- 
terview. "General  McClellan  is  not  to 
blame ;  it  is  Seward's  ^vork.  He  is  con- 
stantly meddling  with  what  is  none 
of  his  business,  and  (alluding  to  the 
Pickens  expedition)  makes  mischief  in 


14 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  UNCOLN.        [January, 


the  war  and  navy  departments  by  his 
interference." 

Tliere  was  in  the  manner  more  than 
in  the  words  a  playful  sarcasm  which 
Seward  felt  and  the  President  evi- 
dently enjoyed.  General  MeC'lellan 
stood  by  the  open  door  with  one  hand 
raised  and  holding  it,  a  good  deal 
embarrassed.  He  said  he  had  intended 
no  discourtesy  to  General  Scott,  but 
he  had  been  so  incessantly  occupied  in 
organizing  and  placing  the  army,  re- 
ceiving and  mustering  in  the  recruits 
as  they  arrived,  and  attending  to  what 
was  absolutely  indispensable,  that  it 
might  seem  ho  omitted  some  matters 
of  duty,  but  he  should  estremely  re- 
gret if  it  was  supposed  he  had  been 
guilty  of  any  disrespect. 

"You  are  too  intelligent  and  too 
good  a  disciplinarian  not  to  know  your 
duties  and  the  proprieties  of  military 
intercourse, "  said  General  Scott;  "but 
seem  to  have  misapprehended  your 
right  position.  I,  you  must  under- 
stand, am  General-in-Chief.  You  are 
my  chief  of  staff.  When  I  brought 
you  here  you  had  my  confidence  and 
friendship.  I  do  not  say  that  you  have 
yet  entirely  lost  my  confidence.  Good 
day,  General  McClellan." 

A  few  weeks  later  General  Scott  was 
on  his  own  application  placed  upon  the 
retired  list,  and  General  McClellan 
became  his  succcrisor.  Disaffection  on 
the  part  of  any  of  the  officers,  if  any 
existed,  did  not  immediately  show  it- 
self; the  army  and  people  witnessed 
with  pride  the  prompt  and  wonderful 
reorganization  that  had  taken  place, 
and  for  a  time  exulted  in  the  promised 
efficiency  and  capabilities  of  the 
"youug  Napoleon."  But  the  autumn 
passed  away  in  grand  reviews  and 
showy  parades,  where  the  young  Gen- 
eral appeared  with  a  numerous  staff 
composed  of  wealthy  young  gentlemen, 
inexperienced,  untrained,  and  unac- 
quainted with  military  duty,  who  as 
well  as  foreign  princes  had  volunteered 
their  services.  Parades  and  reviews 
were  not  useless,  and  the  committal  of 
wealthy  and  influential  citizens  who 
were  placed  upon  his  staff  had  its  ad- 


vantages ;  but  as  time  wore  on  and  no 
blow  was  struck  or  any  decisive  move- 
ment attempted,  complaints  became 
numerous  and  envy  and  jealousy  found 
opportunity  to  be  heard. 

The  expectation  that  the  rebellion 
would  be  suppressed  in  ninety  days, 
and  that  an  undisciplined  force  of 
seventy-five  thousand  men  or  even 
five  times  that  number  would  march  to 
Richmond,  clear  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  capture  New  Orleans,  and 
overwhelm  the  whole  South,  had  given 
way  to  more  reasonable  and  rational 
views  before  Congress  convened  at  the 
regular  session  in  December.  Still  the 
slow  progress  that  was  made  by  the 
Union  armies,  and  the  immense  war  ex- 
penditures, to  which  our  country  was 
then  unaccustomed,  caused  uneasiness 
with  the  people,  and  furnished  food  and 
excitement  for  the  factions  in  Con- 
gress. 

The  anti-slavery  feeling  was  increas- 
ing, but  efforts  to  effect  emancipation 
were  not  controlling  sentiments  of  the 
Administration  or  of  a  majority  of  Con- 
gress at  the  commencement  or  dur- 
ing the  first  year  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  term, 
although  such  are  the  representations 
of  party  writers,  and  to  some  extent  of 
the  historians  of  the  period.  Nor  did 
the  Administration,  as  is  often  asserted 
and  by  many  believed,  commence  hos- 
tilities and  make  aggressive  war  on  the 
slave  States  or  their  institutions;  but 
when  war  began  and  a  national  garri- 
son in  a  national  fortress  was  attacked, 
it  did  not  fail  to  put  forth  its  power 
and  energies  to  suppress  the  rebellion 
and  maintain  the  integrity  of  the 
Union.  IVrditary  delays  and  tardy 
movements  were  nevertheless  charged 
to  the  imbecility  of  the  Government. 
It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  a  portion  of 
the  most  active  supporters  of  the  Pres- 
ident in  and  out  of  Congress  and  in  the 
armies  had  in  view  ulterior  purposes 
than  that  of  suppressing  the  insuri'ec- 
tion.  Some  were  determined  to  avail 
tliemselves  of  the  opportunity  to  abol- 
ish slavery,  others  to  extinguish  the 
claim  of  reserved  sovereignty  to  the 
States,  and  a  portion  were  favorable  to 


1877.] 


AD3IIN1STRATI0N  OF  ^UJRAJIAM  LINCOLN. 


15 


both  of  these  extremes  and  to  the  con- 
solidation of  power  in  the  central  Gov- 
ernment ;  Init  a  larger  number  than 
either  and  perhaps  more  than  all  com- 
bined were  for  maintaining  the  Consti- 
tution and  Union  unimpaired. 

The  President,  while  opposed  to  all 
innovating  schemes,  had  thehai)py  fac- 
ulty of  so  far  harmonizing  and  recon- 
ciling his  dilTering  friends  as  to  keep 
them  united  in  resisting  the  secession 
movement. 

Abraliam  Lincoln  w.is  in  many  re- 
spects a  remarkable  man,  never  while 
living  fully  understood  or  appreciated. 
An  uncultured  child  of  the  frontiers, 
■with  no  educational  advantages,  iso- 
lated in  youth  in  his  wilderness  home, 
■with  few  associates  and  without  family 
traditions,  he  knew  not  his  own  lineage 
and  connections.  Nor  was  this  singu- 
lar in  the  then  condition  of  unsettled 
frontier  life,  llis  grandfather,  with 
Daniel  Boone,  left  the  settled  part  of 
Virginia,  crossed  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains, penetrated  the  "dark  and 
bloody  ground,"  and  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  the  wilds  of  Kentucky  near 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war. 
Tliere  was  little  intercourse  with  each 
other  in  the  new  and  scattered  settle- 
ments destitute  of  roads  and  with  no 
mail  facilities  for  communication  with 
relatives,  friends,  and  the  civilized 
world  east  of  the  mountains.  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  the  grandfather  of  the 
President,  was  a  nephew  of  Daniel 
Boone,  and  partook  of  the  spirit  of 
his  brave  and  subsequently  famous 
relative.  But  his  residence  in  his  se- 
cluded home  was  brief.  Uc  was  killed 
by  the  Indians  when  his  son  Thomas, 
the  father  of  President  Lincoln,  was 
only  six  years  old.  Four  years  later 
the  fatlierless  boy  lost  his  mother. 
Left  an  orphan,  this  neglected  child, 
without  kith  or  kindred  for  whom  he 
cared  or  who  cared  for  him,  led  a  care- 
less, thriftless  life,  became  a  wandering 
pioneer,  emigrated  from  Kentucky 
when  the  President  w.-w  but  seven  years 
old,  took  up  his  resilience  for  several 
years  in  the  remote  solitudes  of  Indiana, 
and  drifted  at  a  later  day  to  Illinois. 


This  vagrant  life,  by  a  shiftless  father, 
and  without  a  mother  or  female  relative 
to  keep  alive  and  impress  upon  him  the 
pedigree  and  traditions  of  his  family, 
left  the  President  without  definite 
kno.vledge  of  his  origin  and  tliat  of  his 
fathers.  The  deprivation  he  keenly 
felt.  I  heal'd  him  say  on  more  than  one 
occasion  that  when  he  laid  down  his 
official  life  he  would  endeavor  to  trace 
out  his  genealogy  and  family  history. 
He  had  a  vague  impression  that  his 
family  had  emigrated  from  England 
to  Pennsylvania  and  thence  to  Virginia ; 
but,  as  he  remarked  in  my  presence  to 
Mr.  Ashmun  of  Massachusetts,  and 
afterwai'd  to  Governor  Andrew,  there 
was  not,  he  thought,  any  immediate 
connection  with  the  families  of  the 
same  name  in  Massachusetts,  thoug'.i 
there  was  reason  to  suppose  they  had 
a  common  ancestry. 

Uaving  entered  upon  this  subject, 
and  already  said  more  than  was  antici- 
pated at  the  commeucment,  the  oppor- 
tunity is  fitting  to  introduce  extracts 
from  a  statement  made  by  himself  and 
to  accompany  it  with  other  facts  which 
have  come  into  my  possession  since  his 
death — facts  of  which  he  had  no 
knowledge. 

In  a  brief  autobiographical  sketch  of 
his  life,  written  by  himself,  be  says: 

I  was  bom  February  12,  IROn.  in  Flarain  county, 
Kentucky.  My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia, 
of  undistin'^uidhed  families — second  families  per- 
haps I  ehould  say.  My  mother,  who  died  in  my 
tenth  year,  was  of  a  family  of  the  nitnie  of  Hanks, 
some  of  whom  now  reside  in  Adams  and  others  in 
Macon  county,  Illinois.  My  paternal  grand- 
father, Abralium  Lincoln,  cmij^ated  from  Rt>ck- 
infitham  county,  Virginia,  to  Kentucky,  about 
1781  or  2,  where,  a  year  or  two  later,  he  was  killed 
by  Indians,  not  in  battle,  but  by  Htealth.  when  he 
was  laborin'^  to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest.  His 
ancestors,  who  were  (Quakers,  went  to  Virginia 
from  Berks  county,  Pennsylvania.  An  effort  to 
Identify  them  with  the  New  England  family  of 
the  same  name  ended  in  nothing  more  definite 
than  a  similarity  of  Christian  names  in  both 
families,  such  as  Enoch,  Levi,  Hcrdecat,  Solomon, 
Abraham,  and  the  like. 

My  father,  at  the  death  of  his  father,  was  but 
Blx  years  of  age  ;  and  he  grew  up  literally  without 
education.  He  removed  from  Kentucky  to  what 
la  now  Spencer  county,  Indiana,  In  my  eighth 
year.  We  reached  our  new  home  about  the 
time  the  Slate  came  Into  the  Union.  It  was 
a  wild  region,  with  many  bears  and  other  wild 
animals  still  in  the  woods.    There  I  grew  up. 


16 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         [Jandart, 


TUere  were  some  schools,  so  called  ;  but  no  quali- 
fication wua  ever  required  of  a  teacher,  beyond 
reading',  writing,  and  ciphering  to  the  rule  of 
three.  If  a  Htruggler,  supposed  to  understand 
Lutiii,  happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood, 
he  wa3  looked  upon  us  a  wizard.  There  was 
absolutely  nothing  to  eicite  ambition  for  educa- 
tion. Ox"  course  when  I  came  of  age  1  did  not 
know  much.  Still,  somehow,  I  could  read, 
write,  and  cipher,  to  the  rule  of  three  ;  but  that 
was  all.  I  huvK  not  been  to  school  since.  The 
little  advance  I  nov?  have  upon  this  store  of 
education  I  have  picked  up  from  time  to  time  un- 
der the  pressure  of  necessity. 

I  was  raised  to  farm  work,  which  I  continued 
till  I  was  twenty-two.  At  twenty-one  I  came  to  Il- 
linois, and  passed  the  first  year  in  Macon  county. 
Theii  I  got  to  New  Salrai,  at  that  time  in  Sanga- 
mon, now  in  Menard  county,  where  I  remained  a 
year  as  a  sort  of  clerk  in  a  store. 

Ill  adilition  to  the  foregoing  I  may 
add  that  among  my  acquaintance  in 
central  Pennsylvania  were  several  sis- 
ters whose  maiden  name  was  Winter.:!. 
Two  of  these  sisters  were  wives  of 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Another  sister  was  the  wife 
of  William  Potter,  a  member  of  Con- 
gress of  some  note  from  that  St.ato  and 
sou  of  General  Potter  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. These  sisters  were  the  great 
aunts  of  President  Lincoln,  and  I  sub- 
join au  obituary  notice  of  the  younger 
sister,  Mrs.  Potter,  who  died  in  1875, 
at  the  advanced  age  of  eiglity-four. 
There  are  some  incidents  not  immedi- 
ately connected  with  the  subject  that 
might  be  omitted,  but  I  think  it  best 
to  present  the  obituary  in  full : 

Died,  in  Bellefonte,  at  the  residence  of  Edward 
C.  Humes,  on  Sunday  morning,  the  30th  of  May 
A.  D.  13(5,  Mrs.  Lucy  Potter,  relict  of  Hon.  Wil- 
liam W.  Potter,  deceased,  aged  eighty-four  years, 
nine  months,  and  two  days. 

Mrs.  Potter  was  a  member  of  a  large  and  rather 
remarkable  family  ;  her  father  having  been  bom 
In  ITiS,  married  in  lTi7,  died  in  1794  ;  children  to 
the  number  of  nineteen  being  born  to  him,  the 
eldest  in  174d,  the  youngest  in  1790— their  birth 
extending  over  a  period  of  forty-two  years.  Wil- 
liam Winters,  the  father  of  the  deceased,  came 
from  Berks  county  to  Northumberland,  now  Ly- 
coming county,  in  the  year  1773,  having  purchased 
the  farm  lately  known  as  the  Judge  Grier  farm, 
near  what  was  called  Newberry,  but  now  wlthm 
the  corporate  limits  of  the  city  of  Willlamsport. 
Jlr.  Winters  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife 
was  Ann  Boone,  a  sister  of  Colonel  Daniel  Boone, 
famous  in  the  early  annals  of  Kentucky.  His 
marriage  took  place  in  the  year  1747  In  the  then 
provmce  of  Virginia.  By  this  union  there  were 
issue  eleven  children,  four  males  and  seven  fe- 
males. His  eldest  daughter,  Hannah,  married  in 
Kocklnrxhnm  county,  Virginia,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  grandfather  of  Prci-ideut  Lincoln.    Shortly 


before  his  death,  Lincoln,  who  was  killed  by  the 
Indians,  visited  his  father-in-law  at  what  is  now 
Willlamsport,  and  John  Winters,  his  brother-in- 
law,  returned  with  him  to  Kentucky,  whither 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  removed  after  his  marriage; 
John  being  deputed  to  look  after  some  lands  tak- 
en by  Colonel  Daniel  Boocie  and  his  father. 

They  travelled  on  foot  from  the  farm,  by  a 
route  leading  by  where  Bellefonte  now  is,  the  In- 
dian path  "leading  from  Bald  Eagle  to  Franks- 
town." 

John  Winters  visited  his  sister,  Mrs.  Potter,  in 
1843,  and  wandering  to  the  hill  upon  which  the 
Academy  is  situated,  a  messenger  was  sent  for 
him,  his  friends  thinking  ho  had  lost  himself  ; 
but  ho  was  only  looking  for  the  path  he  and  Lin- 
coln hod  trod  sixty  years  before,  and  pointed  out 
with  his  finger  the  course  from  Spring  creek, 
along  Buffalo  run,  to  where  it  crosses  the  *'  Long 
Limestone  Valley,"  us  the  route  they  had  trav- 
elled. 

Upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Wlnters's  first  wife,  in 
1771,  he  again,  in  1774,  married.  His  second 
wife  was  Ellen  Campbell,  who  bore  hira  eight 
children,  three  males  and  five  females,  of  which 
latter  the  subject  of  this  notice  was  the  youngest. 

The  father  of  Mrs.  Potter  died  in  1794,  and  in 
1795  Mrs.  Ellen  Winters,  his  widow,  was  licensed 
by  the  courts  of  Lycoming  county  to  keep  a 
"house  of  entertainment"  where  Williumsport 
now  is — where  she  lived  and  reared  her  own  chil- 
dren as  well  as  several  of  her  step  children. 

Here  all  her  daughters  married,  Mary  becoming 
the  wife  of  Charles  Huston,  who  for  a  number  of 
year.s  adorned  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
this  State  ;  Ellen,  the  wl/e  of  Thomas  Burn.side, 
who  was  a  member  of  Congress,  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  finally  a  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court ;  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Benjamin 
Harris,  whose  daughter.  Miss  Ellen  Harris,  resides 
on  Spring  street  in  this  borough  ;  Elizabeth,  the 
wife  of  Thomas  Alexander,  a  carpenter  and  build- 
er, who  erected  one  of  the  first  dwellings  in  Wil- 
llamsport, at  the  comer  of  what  are  now  Pine  and 
Third  streets  in  that  city,  and  many  of  whose  de- 
scendants are  still  living  in  Lycomiig  county  ; 
Lucy,  the  wife  of  William  W.  Potter,  a  leading 
politician  In  this  county,  who  died  on  the  15th 
day  of  October,  1838,  while  a  member  of  our  na- 
tional Congress. 

Mrs.  Potter  continued  with  her  mother's  fami- 
ly in  Lycoming  county,  frequently  visiting  her 
two  sisters,  Mrs.  Huston  and  Mrs.  Burnside, 
who  resided  in  Bellefonte,  wlicre,  in  iH15,  she 
was  united  In  marriage,  by  Kev.  James  Linn, 
with  William  W.  Potter,  a  young  and  rising  law- 
yer, and  sou  of  General  James  Potter,  one  of  the 
early  settlers  of  the  county.  Here,  with  her  hus- 
band until  his  death,  and  then,  upon  the  marri- 
age of  her  niece.  Miss  Lucy  Alexander,  with  Mr. 
Edward  C.  Humes,  she  made  her  home,  living 
continuously  in  this  town  since  her  marriage,  and 
having  survived  her  husband  for  the  long  period 
of  thirty-seven  years,  being  that  length  of  time  a 
widow. 

The  biographers  of  President  Lin- 
coln have  none  of  them  given  these 
f.acts  because  they  did  not  know  them, 
nor  was  the  President  himself  aware 
of  them.     Of  their  authenticity  so  fnr 


1877. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


17 


as  tbe  relationship  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  the  family  of  Winters  is  con- 
cerned, I  have  no  doubt.  His  ancestry 
in  this  country,  paternal  and  mater- 
nal^Liucohi,  Boone,  and  Winters — is 
to  be  traced  to  the  county  of  Berks, 
Pennsylvania. 

A  roving  child  of  the  forest,  where 
there  were  not  even  village  schools, 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  little  early  cul- 
ture, but  his  vigorous  native  intellect 
sought  information  wherever  it  could 
be  obtained  with  limited  means  and 
opportunities,  and  overcame  almost  in- 
superable obstacles.  His  quick  per- 
ception and  powers  of  observation  and 
reflection,  and  his  retentive  memory 
were  remarkable;  his  judgment  was 
good,  his  mental  grasp  and  compre- 
heusiou  equal  to  any  emergency,  his 
intentions  were  always  honest,  and 
his  skill  and  tact,  with  a  determination 
to  always  maintain  the  riglit,  begot 
contidencc  and  made  him  successful 
and  great.  Party  opponents  imputed 
his  success  under  difficulties  that 
seemed  insurmountable  to  craft  and 
cunning;  but  while  not  deficient  in 
shrewdness,  his  success  was  the  result 
not  of  deceptive  measures  or  wily  in- 
trigue, but  of  wisdom  and  fidelity 
with  an  intuitive  sagacity  that  seldom 
erred  as  to  measures  to  be  adopted,  or 
the  course  to  be  pursued.  It  may  be 
said  of  him,  that  he  possessed  inhe- 
rently a  master  mind,  and  was  innate- 
ly a  leader  of  men.  He  listened,  as 
I  have  often  remarked,  patiently  to  the 
advice  and  opinions  of  others,  though 
he  might  diifer  from  them ;  treated 
unintentional  errors  with  lenity,  was 
forbearing,  and  kind  to  mistaken  sub- 
ordinates, but  ever  true  to  his  own 
convictions.  He  gathered  information 
and  knowledge  whenever  and  wher- 
ever he  had  opportunity,  but  quietly 
put  aside  assumption  and  intrusive  at- 
tempt to  unduly  influence  and  control 
him. 

Like  all  his  Cabinet,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Mr.  Blair,  who  had  been  edu- 
cated at  West  Point,  he  was  without 
military  pretension  when  he  entered 
upon  hia  executive  duties  and  encoun- 


tered at  the  very  threshold  a  civil  war 
which  had  been  long  maturing,  was 
deeply  seated,  and  in  its  progress  was 
almost  unprecedented  in  magnitude. 
Neither  he  nor  any  of  his  advisers  had 
personal,  official,  jjraotieal  experience 
in  udmiuistcring  the  civil  service  of 
the  Fedirul  GDvernnii-nt.  The  com- 
mencement of  hostilities,  before  they 
had  time  to  become  familiar  with  their 
duties,  imposed  upon  each  and  all 
labors  and  cares  beyond  those  of  any 
of  their  predecessors.  To  these  were 
added  the  conduct  of  militai-y  opera- 
tions as  novel  as  they  were  responsi- 
ble. Unprepared  as  the  country  was 
for  the  sudden  and  formidable  insur- 
rection, the  Administration  was  not 
less  so,  yet  it  was  compelled  at  once 
to  meet  it,  make  prcpar.atioas,  call 
out  immense  armies,  and  select  officers 
to  organize  and  command  them. 

These  commanders  were  most  of 
them  educated  military  officers,  but 
possessed  of  limited  experience.  Tlicir 
lives  had  been  passed  on  a  peace  estab- 
lishment, and  they  were  consequently 
without  practical  knowledge.  Many 
of  these,  as  well  as  such  officers  as 
were  selected  from  civil  life,  seemed 
bewildered  by  their  sudden  prefer- 
ment, and  appeared  to  labor  under  the 
impression  that  they  were  clothed  not 
only  with  military  but  civil  authority. 
Some  in  the  higher  grades  imagined 
that  in  addition  to  leading  armies  and 
fighting  buttles,  they  had  plenary 
power  to  administer  the  Government 
and  prescribe  the  policy  to  be  pursued 
in  their  respective  departments.  Much 
difficulty  and  no  small  embarrassment 
was  caused  by  their  mistaken  assump- 
tions and  acts,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
war. 

J.  C.  Fremont,  the  western  explor- 
er, a  political  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency in  ISriO,  and  made  a  major 
general  by  President  Lincoln  at  the 
beginning  of  the  rebellion  in  1861, 
was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the 
western  department.  He  evidently 
considered  himself  clothed  with  pro 
consular  powers;  that  he  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Government  in  a  civil 


18 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LLXCOLN.         [jANU.\x.r, 


capacity  as  well  as  military  command- 
er, and  soon  after  establishing  his 
headquarters  at  St.  Louis  assumed  au- 
thority over  the  slavery  question  which 
the  President  could  neither  recognize 
nor  permit.  Gener.d  Hunter,  at  Port 
Royal,  and  General  Phelps,  in  the 
Gulf,  each  laboring  under  the  same 
error,  took  upon  themselves  to  issue 
extraordinary  manifestoes  that  conflict- 
ed with  the  Constitution  and  laws,  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  which  the 
President  was  compelled  to  disavow. 
The  subject,  if  to  be  acted  upon,  was 
administrative  and  belonged  to  the 
Government  and  civil  authorities — not 
to  military  commanders.  But  there 
was  a  feeling  in  Congress  and  the 
country  which  sympathized  with  the 
radical  generals  in  these  anti-slavery 
decrees,  rather  than  with  the  law,  and 
the  Executive  in  maintaining  it.  The 
Secretary  of  War,  under  whom  these 
generals  acted,  not  inattentive  to  cur- 
rent opinion,  also  took  an  extraordinary 
position,  and  in  his  annual  report  enun- 
ciated a  policy  in  regard  to  the  slavery 
question,  without  the  assent  of  the 
President  and  without  even  consulting 
him.  Mr.  Lincoln  promptly  directed 
the  assuming  portion  of  the  report, 
which  had  already  been  printed,  to  be 
cancelled ;  but  the  proceeding  embar- 
rassed the  Administration  and  contri- 
buted to  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Cameron 
from  the  Cabinet.  These  differences  in 
the  army,  in  the  Administration,  and 
among  the  Republicans  in  Congress, 
extended  to  the  people.  A  radical 
faction  opposed  to  the  legal,  cautious, 
and  considerate  policy  of  the  Presi- 
dent began  to  crystallize  and  assume 
shape  and  form,  which,  while  it  did 
not  openly  oppose  the  President, 
sowed  the  seeds  of  discontent  against 
his  policy  and  the  general  manage- 
ment of  public  affairs. 

The  military  operations  of  the  pe- 
riod are  not  hero  detailed  or  alluded 
to,  except  incidentally  when  n.arrating 
the  action  of  the  Administration  in  di- 
recting army  movements  and  shaping 
the  policy  of  the  Government.  Near- 
ly one-third  of  the  States  were,  during 


the  Presidency  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  unrep- 
resented in  the  national  councils,  and 
in  open  rebellion.  A  belt  of  border 
States,  extending  from  the  Delaware  to 
the  Rocky  mountains,  which,  though 
represented  in  Congress,  had  a  divid- 
ed population,  was  distrustful  of  the 
President.  Yielding  the  Administra- 
tion a  qualified  support,  and  opposed  to 
the  Government  in  almost  all  its  mea- 
sures, was  an  old  organized  and  disci- 
plined party  in  all  the  free  States, 
which  seemed  to  consider  its  obliga- 
tions to  party  paramount  to  duty  to  the 
country.  This  last,  if  it  did  not  boldly 
participate  with  the  rebels,  was  an 
auxiliary,  and  as  a  party,  hostile  to  the 
Administration,  and  opposed  to  near- 
ly every  measure  for  suppressing  the 
insurrection. 

There  were  among  the  friends  of  the 
Administration,  and  especially  during 
its  last  two  years,  radical  differences, 
which  in  the  first  stages  of  the  war 
were  undeveloped.  The  mild  and  per- 
suasive temper  of  the  President,  his 
generous  and  tolerant  disposition,  and 
his  kind  and  moderate  forbearance 
toward  the  rebels,  whom  he  invited 
and  would  persuade  to  return  to  their 
allegiance  and  their  duty,  did  not  cor- 
respond with  the  schemes  and  designs 
of  the  extreme  and  violent  leaders  of 
the  Republican  party.  They  had  other 
objects  than  reconstruction  to  attain, 
were  implacable  and  revengeful,  and 
some  with  ulterior  radical  views 
thought  the  opportunity  favorable  to 
effect  a  change  of  administration. 

These  had  for  years  fomented  divis- 
ion, encouraged  stiife,  and  were  as  ul- 
tra and  as  unreasonable  in  their  de- 
mands and  exactions  as  the  secession- 
ists. Some  had  welcomed  war  with 
grim  satisfaction,  and  were  for  pros- 
ecuting it  unrelentingly  with  fire  and 
sword  to  the  annihilation  of  the  rights, 
and  the  absolute  subversion  of  the 
Southern  States  and  subjection  of  the 
Southern  people.  There  was  in  their 
ranks  unreasoning  fanaticism,  and  fe- 
rocity that  partook  of  barbarism,  with 
a  mixture  of  political  intrigue  fatal  to 
our  Federal  system.     Tliese  men,  dis- 


1877.] 


ADffllSnSTKATION  OF  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 


19 


satisfied  with  President  Lincoln,  ac- 
cused him  of  temporizing,  of  imbecil- 
ity, and  of  sympathy  with  tlie  rebels 
because  lie  would  not  confiscate  their 
whole  property,  and  hang  or  punish 
them  as  pirates  or  traitors.  Tliese  rad- 
ical Republicans,  as  they  were  proud 
to  call  themselves,  occupied,  like  all  ex- 
treme men  in  high  party  and  revolu- 
tionary times,  the  front  rank  of  their 
part}',  and,  though  really  a  minority, 
gave  tone  and  character  to  the  Repu'v 
liean  organization.  Fired  with  aveng- 
ing zeul,  and  often  successful  in  their 
extreme  views,  though  to  some  extent 
checked  and  modified  by  the  Pres- 
ident, they  were  presuming,  and  flat- 
tered themselves  they  could,  if  unsuc- 
cessful with  Mr.  Lincoln,  effect  a 
change  in  the  administration  of  the 
Government  in  1864  by  electing  a 
President  who  would  conform  to  tlieir 
ultra  demands.  Secret  meetings  and 
whispered  consultations  were  held  for 
that  purpose,  and  for  a  time  aspiring 
and  calculating  politicians  gave  them 
encouragement;  but  it  soon  became 
evident  that  the  conservative  senti- 
ment of  the  Republicans  and  the  coun- 
try was  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  that  the 
confidence  of  the  people  in  his  patriot- 
ism and  integrity  was  such  as  could 
not  be  shaken.  Nevertheless,  a  small 
band  of  tbe  radicals  held  out  and  would 
not  assent  to  his  benignant  policy. 
These  malcontents  undertook  to  create 
a  distinct  political  organization  which, 
if  possessed  of  power,  would  make  a 
more  fierce  and  unrelenting  war  on  the 
rebels,  break  down  their  local  insti- 
tutions, overturn  their  State  govern- 
ments, subjugate  the  whites,  elevate  the 
blacks,  and  give  not  only  freedom  to 
the  slaves,  but  by  national  decree  over- 
ride the  States,  and  give  suffrage  to  the 
whole  colored  race.  These  extreme 
and  rancorous  notions  found  no  favor 
witli  Mr.  Lincoln,  who,  though  nom- 
inally a  Whig  in  the  past,  had  respect 
for  the  Constitution,  loved  the  Federal 
Union,  and  had  a  sacred  regard  for  the 
rights  of  the  States,  which  the  Whigs 
as  a  party  did  not  entertain.  War 
two  years  after  secession  commenced 


brought  emancipation,  but  emancipa- 
tion did  not  dissolve  the  Union,  con- 
solidate the  Government,  or  clothe  it 
with  absolute  power;  nor  did  it  impair 
the  autliority  and  rights  which  the 
States  had  reserved.  Emancipation 
was  a  necessary,  not  a  revolutionary 
measure,  forced  upon  the  Administra- 
tion by  the  secessionists  tliemselves, 
who  insisted  that  slavery  which  was 
local  and  sectional  should  be  made  na- 
tional. 

The  war  was,  in  fact,  defensive  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  against  a  sec- 
tional insurrection  which  had  seized 
the  fortresses  and  public  property  of 
the  nation;  a  war  for  the  maintenance 
of  tbe  Union,  not  for  its  dissolution;  a 
war  for  the  preservation  of  individual, 
State,  and  Federal  rights ;  good  admin- 
istration would  permit  neither  to  be 
sacrificed  nor  one  to  encroach  on  the 
other.  The  necessary  exercise  of  ex- 
traordinary war  powers  to  suppress  the 
Rebellion  had  given  encouragement 
and  strength  to  tbe  centralists  who  ad- 
vocated the  consolidation  and  concen- 
tration of  authority  in  the  general 
Government  in  peace  as  well  as  war, 
and  national  supervision  over  the  States 
and  people.  Neither  the  radical  en- 
thusiasts nor  the  designing  centralists 
admitted  or  subscribed  to  the  doctrine 
that  political  power  emanated  from  tbe 
people ;  but  it  was  the  theory  of  both 
that  the  authority  exercised  by  the 
States  was  by  grant  derived  from  the 
parental  or  general  Government.  It 
was  their  theory  that  tlio  Government 
created  the  States,  not  that  the  States 
and  people  created  the  Government. 
Some  of  them  had  acquiesced  in  cer- 
tain principles  which  were  embodied 
in  the  fundamental  law  called  the  Con- 
stitution; but  the  Constitution  was  in 
their  view  the  child  of  necessity,  .i 
mere  crude  attempt  of  the  theorists  of 
1770,  wlio  made  successful  resistance 
against  British  authority,  to  limit  the 
power  of  the  new  central  Government 
which  was  substituted  for  that  of  the 
crown.  For  a  period  after  the  Rev- 
olution it  was  admitted  that  feeble 
limitations   on  central   authority  had 


20 


ADfflNISTRiVTION  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.        [Janoabt, 


been  observed,  though  it  was  main- 
tained that  those  limitations  had  been 
obstructions  to  our  advancing  pros- 
perity, the  cause  of  continual  contro- 
versy, and  had  gradually  from  time  to 
time  been  dispensed  with,  broken 
down,  or  made  to  yield  to  our  growing 
necessities.  The  civil  war  had  made 
innovations — a  sweep,  in  fact,  of  many 
constitutional  barriers — and  radical 
consolidationists  like  Thaddeus  Ste- 
vens and  Henry  Winter  Davis  felt  that 
the  opportunity  to  fortify  central  au- 
tliority  and  establish  its  supremacy 
should  be  improved. 

These  were  the  ideas  and  principles 
of  leading  consolidationists  and  radi- 
cals in  Congress  who  were  politicians  of 
ability,  had  studied  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment, and  were  from  conviction  op- 
ponents of  reserved  rights  and  State 
sovereignty  and  of  a  mere  confedera- 
tion or  Federal  Union,  based  on  the  po- 
litical equality  and  reserved  sovereignty 
of  the  States,  but  insisted  that  the  cen- 
tral Government  should  penetrate  fur- 
ther and  act  directly  on  the  people. 
Few  of  these  had  given  much  study  or 
thought  to  fundamental  principles,  the 
character  and  structure  of  our  Federal 
system,  or  the  Constitution  itself.  Most 
of  them,  under  the  pressure  of  schemers 
and  enthusiasts,  were  willing  to  assume 
and  ready  to  exercise  any  power  deem- 
ed expedient,  regardless  of  the  organ- 
ic law.  Almost  unrestrained  legisla- 
tion to  carry  on  the  war  induced  a  spirit 
of  indLEEerence  to  constitutional  re- 
straint, and  brought  about  an  assump- 
tion by  some,  a  belief  by  others,  that 
Congress  was  omnipotent;  that  it  was 
the  embodiment  of  the  national  will, 
and  that  the  other  departments  of  the 
Government  as  well  as  the  States  were 
subordinate  and  subject  to  central  Con- 
gressional control.  Absolute  power, 
the  centralists  assumed  and  their  fa- 
natical associates  seemed  to  suppose, 
was  vested  in  the  legislative  body  of  the 
country,  and  its  decrees,  arbitrary  and 
despotic,  often  originating  in  and  car- 
ried first  by  a  small  vote  in  party  cau- 
cus, were  in  all  cases  claimed  to  bo  de- 
cisive, and  to  be  obeyed  by  the  Execu- 


tive, the  judiciary,  and  the  people,  re- 
gardless of  the  Constitution.  Parlia- 
mentary discussions  were  not  permit- 
ted, or  of  little  avail.  The  acts  of  caucus 
were  despotic,mandatory,  and  decisive. 
The  several  propositions  and  plans  of 
President  Lincoln  to  reestablish  the 
Union,  and  induce  the  seceding  States 
to  resume  their  places  and  be  repre- 
sented in  Congress,  were  received  with 
disfavor  by  the  radical  leaders,  who, 
without  open  assault,  set  in  motion  an 
undercurrent  against  nearly  every  Ex- 
ecutive proposition  as  the  weak  and 
impotent  offspring  of  a  well  meaning 
and  well  intentioned,  but  not  very  com- 
petent and  intelligent  mind.  It  was 
the  difference  between  President  Lin- 
coln and  the  radical  leaders  in  Congress 
on  the  question  of  reconciliation,  the 
restoration  of  the  States,  and  the  rees- 
tablishment  of  the  Union  on  the  origi- 
nal constitutional  basis,  which  more 
than  even  his  genial  and  tolerant  feel- 
ings toward  the  rebels  led  to  political 
intrigue  among  Republican  members 
of  Congress  for  the  nomination  of  new 
candidates,  and  opposition  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's reelection  in  1804.  At  one  pe- 
riod this  intrigue  seemed  formidable, 
and  some  professed  friends  lent  it  their 
countenance,  if  they  did  not  actually 
participate  in  it,  who  ultimately  disa- 
vowed any  connection  with  the  pro- 
ceeding. 

Singular  ideas  were  entertained  and 
began  to  be  developed  in  propositions 
of  an  extraordinary  character,  relative 
to  the  powers  and  the  construction  of 
the  Government,  which  were  presented 
to  Congress,  even  in  the  first  year  of  the 
war.  Theoretical  schemes  from  culti- 
vated intellects,  as  well  as  crude  no- 
tions from  less  intellectual  but  extreme 
men,  found  expression  in  resolutions 
and  plans,  many  of  which  were  absurd 
and  most  of  them  impracticable  and 
illegal.  Foremost  and  prominent 
among  them  were  a  series  of  studied 
and  elaborate  resolutions  prepared  by 
Charles  Sumner,  and  submitted  to  the 
Senate  on  the  11th  of  February,  1863. 
Although  presented  at  that  early  day, 
they  were  the  germ  of  the  reconstruc- 


1877.] 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABR.VHAM  LINCOLN. 


SI 


tion  policy  adopted  at  a  later  period. 
Iq  this  plan  or  project  for  the  treat- 
ment of  tlie  insurrectionary  States  and 
tlij  people  wlio  resided  in  them,  the 
Massachusetts  Senator  niauifested  lit- 
tle rcg.ird  for  the  fundamental  law 
or  for  State  or  individual  riglits. 
The  high  position  which  this  Senator 
held  in  the  liepublican  party  and 
in  Congress  and  the  country,  his 
cultured  mind  and  scholarly  attain- 
ments, his  ardent  if  not  always  discreet 
zeal  and  elloits  to  free  tlie  slaves  and 
endow  the  whole  colored  race,  wheth- 
er capable  or  otherwise,  with  all  the 
rights  and  privileges,  socially  and  po- 
litically, of  the  educated  and  refined 
white  population  whom  they  had  pre- 
viously served,  his  readiness  and  avow- 
ed intention  to  overthrow  the  local 
State  governments  and  the  social  sys- 
tem where  slavery  existed,  to  subjugate 
thewliitcs  and  elevate  the  blacks,  will 
justify  a  special  notice;  for  it  was  one 
of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first  of  the 
radical  schemes  officially  presented 
to  change  the  character  of  the  Govern- 
ment ond  the  previously  existing  dis- 
tinctions between  the  races.  His  the- 
ory or  plan  may  be  taken  as  the  pio- 
neer of  the  many  wild  and  visionary 
projects  of  the  central  and  abolition 
force,  that  took  shape  and  form  not 
only  during  the  war,  but  after  hostili- 
ties ceased  and  the  rebels  were  sub- 
dued. 

Mr.  Sumner  introduced  his  scheme 
with  a  preamble  which  declared, 
among  other  things,  that  the  "  exten- 
sive territory "'  of  the  South  had  been 
"  usurped  by  pretended  governments 
and  organizations  ";  that  "  the  Consti- 
tution, which  is  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land,  cannot  be  displaced  in  its 
rightful  operation  within  this  territo- 
ry, but  must  ever  continue  the  su- 
preme law  thereof,  notwithstanding 
the  doings  of  any  pretended  govern- 
ments acting  singly  or  in  confederation 
in  order  to  put  an  end  to  its  suprem- 
acy."    Therefore: 

RAto^tvd,  l9t.    That  any  vote  of  Bccession.  or 
other  act  by  which  any  Stnte  may  andprtake  to 
pat  an  eod  to  the  Bupr«mac7  of  tho  Coofltitatioo 
2 


within  ita  territory,  is  inoperative  and  void 
a;;uin8t  tlio  Couatitution,  and  when  suatuincd  by 
forco  It  becomes  a  practical  abdication  by  the 
State  of  all  rights  uuder  tho  Coni^titutiun,  wtiile 
the  treason  which  it  involves  etiii  further  worlis 
an  instant  forftiture  of  aii  those  functions  uud 
powers  essentlai  to  the  continued  existence  of 
the  btatti  as  a  body  puiitic,  so  tliat  from  that 
time  fonvard  the  territory  fulis  under  the  exciu- 
pive  jurisdiction  of  (Jon;;ress  as  other  territory, 
and  tho  State,  bcins,  according  to  the  laiij;uaye  of 
the  iaw,  /V.'o  d<^  tie,  ceases  to  exist. 

Sd.  Tlnit  any  combination  of  men  assuming  to 
act  in  the  piace  of  such  State,  attcraptin.;  to  en- 
snare or  coerce  the  intiabitants  thereof  into  a  con* 
fedemtion  tiostiie  to  the  Union,  is  rebellious, 
treasonable,  and  destitute  of  all  moral  authority; 
and  that  such  combination  is  a  usurpation  inca- 
pable of  any  constitutional  existence  and  utterly 
lawless,  so  tliat  everything  dependent  upon  it  i3 
without  constitutional  or  legal  support. 

3d.  That  the  termination  of  a  State  under  the 
Constitution  necessarily  causes  the  termination 
of  those  peculiar  local  institutions  which,  havin;^ 
no  origin  in  the  Constitution,  or  in  tho-ie  natural 
rights  which  exist  Independent  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, are  upheld  by  the  sole  and  exclusive  author- 
ity of  tho  State. 

.  .  .  Congress  will  aflsnme  complete  juris- 
diction of  snch  vacated  territory  where  su(;Ii  un* 
constitutional  and  illegal  things  have  been  at- 
tempted, and  will  proceed  to  establish  therein  re- 
publican forms  of  government  under  the  Consti- 
tution. 

It  is  not  shown  how  a  usurpation  or 
illegal  act  by  conspirators  in  any  State 
or  States  could  justify  or  make  legal 
a  usurpation  by  the  general  Govern- 
ment, as  this  scheme  evidently  was,  nor 
by  what  authority  Congress  could  de- 
clare that  the  illegal,  inoperative,  and 
void  acts  of  usurpers  who  might  have 
temporary  possession  of  or  be  a  ma- 
jority in  a  State,  could  constitute  a 
practical  abdication  by  tho  State  it- 
self of  all  rights  under  the  Consti- 
tution, regardless  of  the  rights  of  a 
legal,  loyal  minority,  guilty  of  no  usur- 
pation or  attempted  secession — the 
innocent  victims  of  a  conspiracy; 
nor  where  Congress  or  the  Federal 
Government  obtained  authority  to 
pronounce  "an  instant  forfeiture  of 
:;11  those  functions  and  powers  es- 
sential to  the  continued  existence  of  a 
State  as  a  body  politic,  so  that  from 
that  time  forward  the  territory  falls 
under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of 
Congress  as  other  territory,  and  the 
State,  being,  according  to  the  language 
of  the  law,  t'elo  de  s:,  ceases  to  e.xist. " 

The  aduiiiiiitration  of  Mr.  Buchanan 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         [January, 

a  practical  statesman.  He  could  jjuU 
down,  but  he  could  not  construct— 
could  declare  what  he  considered  hu- 
mane, right,  and  proper,  and  act  upon 
it  regardless  of  constitutional  compro- 
mises or  conventional  regulations 
which  were  the  framework  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. No  man  connected  with  the 
Administration,  or  in  either  branch  of 
Congress,  was  more  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  our  treaties,  so  familiar 
with  the  traditions  of  the  Government, 
or  better  informed  on  international 
law  than  Charles  Sumner;  but  on  al- 
most all  other  Governmental  questions 
he  was  impulsive  and  unreliable,  and 
when  his  feelings  were  enlisted,  imperi- 
ous, dogmatical,  and  often  unjust. 

Why  innocent  persons  who  were  loy- 
al to  the  Government  and  the  Union 
should  be  disfranchised  and  proscrib- 
ed because  their  neighbors  and  fellow 
citizens  had  engaged  in  a  conspiracy, 
he  could  not  explain  or  defend.  By 
what  authority  whole  communities  and 
States  should  be  deprived  of  the  local 
governments  which  their  fathers  had 
framed,  under  which  they  were  born, 
and  with  the  provisions  and  traditions 
of  which  they  were  familiar,  was  never 
told. 

His  propositions  found  no  favor  with 
the  Administration,  nor  were  they  sup- 
ported at  the  beginning  by  any  consid- 
erable number  even  of  the  extremists  in 
Congress.  It  required  much  training 
by  the  centralizing  leaders  for  years 
and  all  the  tyranny  of  caucus  machinery 
after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  carry 
them  into  effect  by  a  series  of  recon- 
struction measures  that  were  revolu- 
tionary in  their  character,  and  which 
to  a  certain  extent  unsettled  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  Government  was 
founded. 

But  the  counsel  and  example  of  the 
distinguished  Senator  from  Massachu- 
setts were  not  without  their  influence. 
Resolutions  by  radical  Republicans  and 
counter  resolutions,  chiefly  by  Demo- 
crats, relative  to  the  powers  and  limi- 
tations of  the  Federal  Government  and 
the  status  of  States,  followed  in  quick 
succession.     On  the  11th  of   June,  the 


aa 


had  laid  down  as  a  rule  of  government 
that  a  State  could  not  be  coerced.  The 
whole  country  not  in  rebellion  had  de- 
clared there  should  be  no  secession,  di- 
vision, or  destruction  of  the  Federal 
Union,  but  here  was  the  most  conspicu- 
ous leader  of  the  Republican  party  in 
the  Senate  proposing  a  scheme  to  pun- 
ish a  State,  to  anniliilate  and  destroy  its 
government,  to  territorialize  it,  to  ex- 
clude or  expel  it  from  the  Union,  to 
make  no  discrimination  in  its  exclu- 
sions and  denunciations  between  the 
loyal  and  disloyal  inhabitants,  but  to 
punish  alike,  without  trial  or  convic- 
tion, the  just  and  the  unjust.  There 
were,  though  he  was  unwilling  to  admit 
it,  and  was  perhaps  unaware  of  it,  vin- 
dictive feelings,  venom,  and  revenge  in 
his  resolutions  and  in  his  whole  treat- 
ment of  the  States  and  the  white  people 
of  the  South.  From  the  time  that  he 
had  been  stricken  down  by  the  blud- 
geon of  Brooks  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Sum- 
ner waged  unrelenting  war  on  the 
whites  in  the  Southern  States,  and  seem- 
ed to  suppose  it  was  his  special  mission 
— he  certainly  m.ade  it  the  great  object 
of  his  life — to  elevate  the  negro  race- 
to  give  them  at  least  equal  rights  and 
privileges  with  the  educated  and  refined 
class — and  did  not  conceal  his  inten- 
tion and  expectation  to  bring  them  in 
:as  auxiliaries  to  the  Republican  party, 
;and  thereby  give  it  permanent  ascend- 
ancy. All  this  was  done  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  and  with  apparent  self-con- 
vinced sincerity.  He  was  unwilling 
to  acknowledge  tliat  he  was  governed 
or  influenced  by  personal  resentments 
in  his  revolutionary  plans  to  degrade 
the  intelligent  wiiite  and  exalt  the  ig- 
norant black  population  by  tearing 
■down  the  constitutional  edifice.  In  fre- 
quent interviews  which  I  held  with  him 
then  and  at  later  periods,  when  he 
■found  it  impossible  to  hold  his  positions 
nnder  the  Constitution,  he  claimed 
that  he  occupied  higher  ground,  and 
that  his  authority  for  these  violent 
measures  was  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, which  declared  all  men  were 
bom  equal,  etc.  Mr.  Sumner  was  an 
idealist — neither  a  constitutionalist  nor 


1877.]                                       LUCILLE'S  LETTER.                                              23 

subject  having  been  agitated  and  dis-  The  rcsohition  of  Dixon  traversed 
cussed  for  four  months,  Jlr.  Dixon,  a  the  policy  of  Sumner  and  was  the  Ex- 
Republican  Senator  from  Connecticut,  ecutive  view  of  ihe  questions  tliat  were 
whose  views  coincided  in  tlie  main  with  agitated  in  Congress  as  to  the  effect  of 
those  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  Adminis-  the  rebellion  and  the  condition  of  the 
tration,  submitted,  after  consultation  States  in  insurrection.  The  Adminig- 
and  advisement,  the  following:  (ration  did  not  admit  that  rebellion 
Itt»otc«d.  That  all  acts  or  ordinances  of  bcccs-  dissolved  the  Union  or  destroyed  its 
BloQ,  alleged  to  have  been  adopted  by  a..y  k-isla-  federative  character;  nor  did  it  adopt 
ture  or  convention  of  the  people  of  any  htate,  are  ^  ^  ^i  ,  ^i  ^l  ^  ^^ 
aa  to  the  Fcdond  Union  absolutely  nail  and  void  ;  or  assent  to  tlie  novel  theory  that  the 
and  that  while  such  acts  may  and  do  subject  the  States  and  the  whole  people  residing 
Individual  actors  therein  to  forfeitures  and  penal-  jjj  jj,p^  ^^^  forfeited  all  sovereignty 
tics,  they  do  not,  in  any  degree,  affect  the  rela-  i  oi  ^  i  •  i-  •  i  i 
tlons  of  the  SUte  wherein  they  purport  to  have  und  all  reserved  State  and  individual 
been  adopted  to  the  Government  of  the  United  rights,  because  a  portion  of  the  inliab- 
States,  but  arc  as  to  such  Government  acts  of  re-  ita^tg  j^.n!  rebelled  ;  nor  did  it  admit 
bellion.  insurrection,  and  hostility  on  the  part  of  ^-  t  i-  e 
Uie  individuals  eng-.i^ed  therein,  or  Riring  assent  that  the  usurpation  of  a  portion  of  any 
thereto;  and  that  such  States  are,  notwithstjind-  community  could  bring  condemnation 
InsBuchactsorordinances,  members  of  the  Fed-  and  punishment  on  all.  The  usurpa- 
cral  Union,  and  as  such  lu-e  subject  to  ail  the  ob-  ' 

ligations  and  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  the  tions    and    acts    of    the    rebels    were 

Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  and  the  loyal  considered    not    legal  acts,    but   nuUi- 

cltlzens  of  such  States  are  entitled  to  all  the  ^j^,^ 

ngW«  and  prlvUeges  thereby  guaranteed  or  con-  •                               ^^^^^  WellEU. 


LUCILLE'S  LETTER. 


(\UT  of  the  dreary  distance  and  the  dark 

I  stretch  forth  praying;  palms— yet  not  to  pray  ; 
Hands  fold  themselves  for  heaven,  while  mine,  alas  ! 

Are  sundered— held  your  way. 
Brief  moments  have  been  ours,  yet  bright  as  brief  ; 
Oh  I  how  I  live  them  over,  one  by  one, 
Now  that  the  endless  days,  bereft  of  you. 

Creep  slowly,  sadly  on. 
Qornered  in  memory,  those  bewildering  hours, 
A  golden  harvest  of  enchantment  yield  ; 
Here,  like  a  pale,  reluctant  Kuth,  I  glean 

A  cold  and  barren  Held— 

Barren  without  a  shelter  :  and  the  hedge 
Is  made  of  thorns  and  brambles.    It  I  fain 
Would  lean  beyond  the  barrier,  do  you  sec 

The  wounding  and  the  stain  ? 
Did  God  make  us  to  mock  us,  on  the  earth  f 
Why  did  he  fuse  our  spirits  by  !lis  word. 
Then  set  His  awful  An-el  in  our  path, 

Elis  Angel  with  the  sword  ? 
Why,  when  I  contrite  kneel  confessing  all. 
And  seek  with  tciirs  the  way  to  bo  forgiven— 
Why  do  your  pleading  eyes  look  sadly  down 

Between  my  face  and  heaven  ? 
Why  docs  my  blood  thrill  at  your  fancied  touch- 
Stop  and  leap  up  at  your  ideal  caress  f 
Ah,  God  !  to  feel  that  dear  warm  mouth  on  mine 

In  lingering  lendcrncsa  I 
To  lie  at  perfect  peace  upon  your  heart, 
Your  arms  close  folded  round  mc  Arm  and  fast. 
My  check  to  yoora— oh.  vision  dear  aa  vain  I 

That  would  be  home  at  last. 
Leon,  you  are  my  curse,  my  blc'slng  too, 
My  hell,  my  hejjven,  my  storm  that  wrecks  to  save  : 
life  daunts  mc,  and  the  shadows  lengthen  out 

Lcyond  the  grave. 

Maut  L.  Ritteb. 


SOME  OLD  ALMANACKS. 


DO  you  know,  gentle  reader,  wliat 
an  interesting,  valuable,  and 
ussful  book  an  '•Almanack"  once 
was  i  You  are  gorged  with  books, 
and  newspapers  lie  about  thick  as 
leaves  in  Vallambrosa.  Do  you  ever 
buy  an  Almanac  for  five  cents  ?  I  trow 
not.  Therefore  you  do  not  know  how 
much  careful  calculation,  skill,  and 
knowledge  are  to  be  had  for  that  small 
piece  of  money. 

Therefore  you  cannot  sit  down  in  the 
evening  and  pore  over  its  mystic  signs. 
Indeed,  I  fear  you  do  not  know  what  a 
zodiac  is,  or  what  the  meaning  of 
"  Cancer  the  Crab  "  and  "  Gemini  the 
Twins  "  may  be.  It  is  more  than  likely 
you  will  reply,  "  Oh,  yes;  if  the  Crab 
had  a  Cancer,  he  would  cry  Gemini  to 
the  Twins  "—and  in  that  light  and  flip- 
pant way  you  will  try  to  hide  your 
brutal  ignorance,  if  a  male,  your  shal- 
low understanding,  if  a  female. 

Now  I  have  just  had  a  sort  of  musty 
satisfaction  in  looking  over  some  old 
Aim  macs,  wliich  dated  as  far  back  as 
1737.  They  seem  to  have  been  the 
property  of  somebody  whose  letters 
were  W.  S.  His  almanacs  were  so 
prized  that  he  had  interleaved  them,and 
then  he  recorded  his  profound  observa- 
tions. He  thus  liad  learned,  what  I  fear 
you  have  not,  tliat  the  moon  had 
many  mysterious  influences  besides 
making  the  tides  rise  and  fall,  if  it 
does.  It  seems,  if  we  can  believe  "  A 
Native  of  New  England,"  who  made 
B.  Greene's  Almanack  for  1731,  that 
the  "'Jloon  has  dominion  over  man's 
body,"  and  that  when  she  gets  into 
"  Cancer  the  Crab  "  you  must  expect 
every  sort  of  bodevilment  in  your 
broajt  and  stomael'.  When  she  gets 
into  "  Gemini,"  the  same  in  your  arms 
and  s'.ioulders.  Wiien  she  is  in  "  Scor- 
pio "  your  bowels  and  belly  are  in 
danger,  and  so  on  all  through  your 
body ;  so  that  wo  might  well  enough 
wish  the  moon  were  wholly  abolished; 
for  the   little   wishy-washy  light   slie 


gives  to  lovers  and  thieves  is  not  at  all 
a  balance  for  such  fearful  threatenings. 
Who  was  the  "  Native  of  New  Eng- 
land "  is  a  secret,  and  well  it  is,  for 
in  1727  he  graced  liis  title-page  with 
this  poem : 

Man— that  Noble  Creatnre, 

Scanted  of  time,  and  stinted  by  Weak  Nature, 

That  in  foretimes  saw  jubilees  of  years, 

As  by  onr  Ancient  History  appears  ; 

Nay,  which  is  more,  even  Silly  Women  then, 

Liv'd  longer  time  than  onr  jfrave  Qraybeird  Men. 

"  Graced,"  did  I  say  ?  May  we  not 
put  a<?is  before  it  ?  "  Silly  Women  1  " 
"Noble  Creature  !"  Did  the  Native 
mean  that  woman  then  was  silly  and 
man  then  noble  ?  Well  for  him  is  it 
that  our  "Mrs.  Ward  Howes"  and 
"Mrs.  Lillie  Blakes"  cannot  make 
rhymes  upon  lis  name;  well  for  liim 
that  he  went  his  way  holding  his  mantle 
before  his  face. 

But  he  himself  did  not  hold  himself 
lightly.  He  knew  all  about  Apog5 
and  PerigC  (we  now  spell  them 
ApogC'e  and  Perigee).  But  does  the 
Radical  Club  itself  know  anything  at 
all  about  Apogfie  and  Perigee  ?  He 
knew  when  some  "fine  moderate 
weather"  would  come,  when  "winds 
enough  for  several  "  would  blow,  when 
"bad  weather  for  lioop  petticoats" 
would  be;  and  that  was  on  the  29th 
and  30th  of  January,  1727.  Fearful 
weather,  we  may  believe ;  but  he,  the 
Native,  knew.  But  alas  for  us  I  On 
the  2d,  he  puts  it  down  as  "  sloppy  and 
raw  cold."  Now  it  so  chances  that  W. 
S.  has  kept  his  MS.  notes  against  this 
day,  and  he  has  it  "  Vcrijjiiu  and  plca- 
mnt,"  and  the  next  day,  "Dry  and 
dust)/.'"  Lamentable  indeed  for  the  Na- 
tive !  But  he  is  not  to  be  .shaken  for  all 
tliat;  he  prognosticates  through  all  the 
year  just  as  if  all  was  to  come  exactly 
right.  One  would  like  to  know  what 
W.  S.  thought  of  his  prognosticator, 
and  if  he  kept  on  studying  and  believ- 
ing just  the  same  as  if  ad  had  come 
right,     /do  not  doubt  he  did. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOISURBANA 

MMmfsXroF  Abraham""  NCOLN  united 


3  0112  031793349 


